The White Pine News

Does it pay Canada to be a colony of Great Britain? Is there anything in it, outside of sentiment--a sort of mother love? The Alaskan decision has convinced a good many Canadians that England cares more for the good will of the United States than she does for the interests of Canada; that she would sacrifice a colony for politics and to carry out the blood-brotherhood idea, which is supposed to make John Bull and Uncle Sam a good deal closer than friends.

The Halifax Chronicle is the organ of the Liberal party in Canada. It is an influential newspaper, and its management has soured on King Edward to the extent of bitterness. It recommends complete independence for Canada--not annexation to the United States--but the birth of a new and powerful nation. They haven't gone so far as to plan out a government yet. The scheme may include a democratic organization, with a president at the head, or the selection of a king. That is for the future.

One thing is certain: The idea of being ruled from abroad; "God-saving a crown that has scant interest in a land thousands of miles from London; being taxed to support an establishment and government that takes much and gives very little; being bound by English prejudices, and all within sight of a country where freedom and industrial prosperity walk hand in hand, does not please those who think in the Dominion of Canada. Why shouldn't they govern themselves? Canada is an empire. Her possibilities are boundless. She has climate; she needs population. She has acres of fertile land by the tens of millions; she needs farmers. She has natural wealth without limit, and she needs men to develop it. These things that go to make a great nation have not come to Canada under the rule of a foreign king. Is it any wonder that the people who dream of progress should be restless and yearn for a new order of things?